Chapter 28 #2
“Neither did I.”
“Did he say anything when he came in? Did he announce himself, or did he immediately come after you?” Scarlett asked, taking notes quickly.
I shook my head. “He didn’t say anything.
I assumed it was Jackie or Will because I heard the key open the door, and they have a spare.
I called their names and no one answered.
I didn’t think anything of it… until I saw his shoes by the front door.
When I did see them—” I turned to Fai—“I thought it was you.”
Fai seemed surprised. “Me? Why?”
“It was your shoes—those Converse with the soles you superglued back on,” I explained. “When I saw them, I didn’t even think about the fact that they were stolen back in Montana.”
“Why the hell was he wearing my shoes?” Fai asked no one in particular, seeming perplexed.
“It wasn’t just your shoes,” I began, all four of them looking at me expectantly.
I thought back to the night before—the confusion when I thought I had seen Fai and the fear that flooded my veins when Gabriel had turned around.
“He was fully dressed in your clothes: your jeans, your hoodie. He even had on the jean jacket you left on the windowsill when we ran,” I continued.
“I thought it was you until he turned around. He didn’t act aggressively—not initially.
He was standing, waiting until I acknowledged him. ”
Fai was stunned; Jackie and Nate exchanged a look—one that only siblings could decipher. Scarlett hastily scribbled her notes. “Did he explain the clothes?”
“He had my truck, too,” Fai interjected. “I assume the police have it now. It was left at the house.”
“I assumed he had it,” I mumbled.
“Why?” Jackie asked, a brow raised.
I sighed deeply and closed my eyes as I explained. “When I called him Gabriel, he acted confused.”
“Well, we already assumed that wasn’t his name,” Fai interjected.
I shook my head and looked back at him. “It wasn’t like that. He asked me explicitly why I called him his brother’s name.”
“Oh shit,” Nate mumbled with wide eyes, putting the pieces together.
Fai’s gaze stayed trained on me.
“He thought—or at least was pretending—to be you, Fai. He called himself Fai, Faizal… my husband.”
Fai’s jaw dropped in shock, his eyes swimming with confusion.
Scarlett’s pen stopped writing for the first time since I had started explaining, her eyes bouncing between Fai and me. “Was he pretending… or did he believe it?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed.
She nodded slowly. “I’ve seen the photos from your house. It’s quite the mess. Was that from him?”
I shook my head. “He started approaching me and even gave me a hug, and I knew I needed to get away. He wasn’t acting violent, but I didn’t want to see what he would eventually do.
I was making tea, and the kettle caught him off guard just long enough for me to shoulder-check him into the coffee table and run. ”
I explained the run from the living room to the bedroom and the logic going through my head when I opened the window and hid in the closet. Scarlett seemed impressed by my actions, even calling them smart.
“Once I was in the closet, I heard him get through the door. He stopped yelling my name. I think he saw the open window, assumed I had run out, and followed. Once it had been quiet for about a minute, I called Fai,” I explained.
“Why not the police?” Jackie asked, a knowing gleam in her eyes.
I shrugged. “Honestly? It didn’t even cross my mind. I knew Fai would come and would get to me faster than anyone else.”
Jackie hummed, and Nate smirked just a bit. I didn’t have the energy to decipher what was going on there and focused back on Scarlett.
Scarlett continued to take notes while asking me questions. “Do you think he truly believes he is Fai, or is he simply trying to take Fai’s spot in your life?”
“There is no way to know unless I spent more time with him and gave him an official evaluation,” I began, but I was cut short by Nate.
“What’s your gut feeling? Is he losing his mind or is he evil?”
I did my best to keep from rolling my eyes at the comment because Nate couldn’t understand the intricacies of the human mind.
Someone with a personality disorder wasn’t losing their mind; they were navigating a world and culture not built to support them.
Mental illness doesn't, by itself, make someone dangerous.
Yes, people with mental illness could be dangerous, but so could your average Joe who lived down the street.
“I don’t think he’s losing touch with reality,” I explained carefully, thinking back to our time in Montana. “I could always tell there was something off with him. He was too fast to smile at times, and he had to think about questions that should have come naturally.”
“So, was he pretending to be Fai, or does he believe he truly is him?” Jackie asked, perplexed.
I shouldn’t have been shocked that everyone was so heavily involved in the conversation. Scarlett was a former detective, and Jackie was an investigative journalist trained by Fai. This was their wheelhouse.
“We have two options here,” I began. “If he truly believes he is Fai, I think he also believes he is Gabriel. Or, he is using Fai to grow closer to me. He could have also just wanted to scare me. There’s no way to know with the little information we have.
If he were a patient and I was given a file of his actions over the last couple of weeks, I would also look into a potential diagnosis of borderline erotomania. ”
“And that is?” Nate asked, leaning back against the kitchen counter. He was probably the only one keeping up with my ramblings—being the certified genius he was.
“Violent attachment disorder. Well, it’s a broader term. Essentially, there was a trauma in his life that has caused him to behave this way—unhealthily attaching to subjects, needing to be close to them in any manner. In this case… the subject would be me.”
“So his belief that he is, or was, Fai was his way to get close to you?” Nate asked.
I nodded. “It’s possible he’s been trying to get close to me for a while and never found an opening until Fai.
Gabriel saw an opportunity to get close to me via Fai.
Maybe we were brought to Montana for this reason, or it happened organically while we were there, but he watched and learned from Fai’s behavior and actions on how to get close to me. ”
“You think he’s been planning this for a while?” Scarlett asked.
I shrugged. “From what Fai said about his office, he had multiple files on everyone in my life. Extensive files—not something you could put together quickly. He had been at the cabin he rented long enough to get comfortable with the space.”
“I’ll call the station out there to see if they can figure out when the booking came in for the cabin,” Scarlett mused. “If this is the case, do you have any idea when he found out about you? Met you? Anything that explains why you’re the object of his… stalking?”
I shook my head. “I don’t recognize him.”
“It could be from anywhere, truly,” Jackie interjected.
“You have multiple published works, have spoken at conferences, and have guest lectured at multiple universities. It may not have been significant to you. Hell—he could have seen you on the street, and if he wasn’t getting the help he needed to treat the different mental disorders he struggled with, that could have been enough to draw his attention. ”
The room was quiet for a moment, the silence heavy between us all. We could talk all day, throwing our theories and speculations around, but without further information, we couldn’t know the truth. Hell, we didn’t even know if Gabriel was really his name.
“So… is he actually my brother?” Fai asked quietly.
My heart broke, knowing the pain he must have been feeling, losing the one family member he thought he had. I opened my mouth to answer, but Nate beat me to it.
“We don’t know—we can’t know—not yet. But…” Nate sighed deeply and trained his gaze on Fai. “You don’t need him. If he is your brother—well, no offense—he sucks. But you have the rest of us here for you. You don’t need him.”
I stared at Nate in shock. Out of all the people Fai had harmed during his addiction, I would have thought Nate would be the one to never forgive him. While this wasn’t forgiveness, it was an olive branch.
“We’ll figure it out; we’ll get you your answers.” Scarlett looked to me as she spoke her next words. “We’ll get answers for both of you. Let me make some calls, okay? See if I can figure out who Gabriel is and what he wants.”
She wandered off toward her office, Nate following her. Jackie glanced between me and Fai.
“You two should probably talk,” she mumbled. She walked toward the front door and yelled down the hall toward her brother, “I’m going home! Don’t let anyone kidnap my friends!”
“Deal!” Nate yelled back, and I couldn’t help but laugh at the two of them.
Fai was still silent, standing completely still. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head—not saying anything, but as if he were trying to bring himself back to reality. “So… you think Gabriel used me to get to you?”
I nodded. “I’m so sorry, Fai. It’s not fair to you. You just wanted a brother, and he exploited that.”
“So it’s not my fault?” he asked quietly.
I was taken aback. “I’m going to need you to expand.”
“It’s not my fault you were hurt? That this man is fixated on you?” he asked again—his voice quiet, his eyes pleading for an answer.
“My God, Fai. You thought this was your fault?”
He nodded.
“Faizal… even if it turns out he did find me through you, you are not responsible for the actions of others,” I explained as I stood, moving in front of him and placing my hands on either side of his jaw. “This was not your fault.”
He took a deep breath, his eyes closing, and finally, he pulled me into a hug. An audible “oomph” slipped from my lips from the force as I collided with his chest.
“I’m sorry I’m making this about me,” he mumbled into my hair as he held me tightly. “I just couldn’t be responsible for hurting you again. Never again, honey.”
For the first time in years, I truly believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt me again.